Breaking the Word

The disciples approached him and said, "Why do you speak to them in parables?" He said to them in reply, "Because knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven has been granted to you, but to them it has not been granted. To anyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; from anyone who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them in parables, because 'they look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand.' Isaiah's prophecy is fulfilled in them, which says: 'You shall indeed hear but not understand you shall indeed look but never see. Gross is the heart of this people, they will hardly hear with their ears, they have closed their eyes, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and be converted, and I heal them.' "But blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear. Amen, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.  (Mt 13:10-17)

Parables are used to keep a certain amount of mystery to the stories said. Parables should not reveal every thing plainly. Element of mystery is essential to the parables. It is because they are about the kingdom of heaven. Anything of the other world has an element of mystery connected to it. We who want to be scientific and we who want to know everything certainly miss this element of mystery in life.

“To anyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; from anyone who has not, even what he has will be taken away” is a cryptic way of saying that anyone who has made more out of what is given to him will more added to him and anyone who does not make anything out of what is given to him will lose even what he has been given.

Jesus said: “This is why I speak to them in parables, because they look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand.” Jesus is aware and sure why he spoke in parables.  Jesus wanted to leave an element of mystery in revealing the truths about the kingdom.

On that day, Jesus went out of the house and sat down by the sea. Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat down, and the whole crowd stood along the shore. And he spoke to them at length in parables, saying: "A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky ground, where it had little soil. It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep, and when the sun rose it was scorched, and it withered for lack of roots. Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it. But some seed fell on rich soil, and produced fruit, a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold. Whoever has ears ought to hear." (Mt 13:1-9)

Jesus took the role of a teacher. As soon as he saw the crowd, he immediately took his position as a teacher: he sat down; he began to speak. He spoke in parables. Jesus was a teacher because he was communicating something. He was not just a model or a witness. He was all these; and besides these, he was also a revealer. He spoke in parables because  parables revealed the truths about the kingdom.

People went to Jesus in crowds. They listened to him. They were happy with his teachings and messages. They liked his messages and his revelations. They considered him as a teacher of truth and that was the reason why crowds went to him. They valued his teachings.

Jesus should have been a very good observer. Probably he went around the fields and watched the farmers doing their work. I do not think that he was a farmer. He was a son of a carpenter. If he was so much aware of the details of the farming then probably he was a very good observer. He observed the nature so much, he even observed the nature in detail.